Don't let it get away!

If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.

1. Gimme Five It's been a hard summer for bargain sellers as discount department stores, and deeper discounting closeouts specialists, have been posting soft sales. A popular theory is that, as the economy's improving, penny pinchers are trading up -- but not every chain selling stuff on the cheap is struggling.

Shares of Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE) soared 17% on Tuesday after posting blowout quarterly results. The chain that sells trendy stylish goods for $5 or less saw its sales climb 35%. Brisk expansion carried that growth, but same-store sales still clocked in with an impressive 6.6% gain. Adjusted earnings of $0.11 a share were more than the $0.09 a share that Wall Street was expecting.

2. All your iPhones are belong to usAmazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is spicing up its trade-in program -- with a twist. Everyone seems to be offering programs that will turn old electronics into cash or credit, but Amazon's raising the stakes by allowing sellers to lock in trade-in prices now, and have until next month -- Oct. 15, to be exact -- to turn in their smartphones, tablets, and iPods.

This is a neat perk, especially since trade-in prices tend to drop as the next generation hits the market.

Amazon was already offering highly competitive prices on trade-ins. This is just the icing on the cake to stand out in what has become a very-crowded market.

3. Netflix thinks inside the box Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) shares hit an all-time high this week, and a reason for that was a deal announced with Virgin Media in the U.K. that gives many subscribers access to Netflix streams directly from their cable set-top box.

Netflix has been trying to get stateside cable and satellite television providers to do this for more than a year, but their instinct has been to shun Netflix. They see Netflix as a gateway drug to cord cutting, but that's the wrong approach. Working with Netflix, by working on bundling deals, will make cable services stickier. It will also keep Netflix close, because now that Netflix has more than 37 million streaming customers worldwide, you don't want CEO Reed Hastings on the other side of your battle.

Well done, Virgin Media -- and Netflix, of course.

4. Pandora express Pandora (NYSE: P) users don't need to search for months to find what they're looking for, but the media giant did in smoking out its new CEO. Digital advertising vet Brian McAndrews was named the leading streaming service's new helmsman.

It's a great call. McAndrews is best known for taking aQuantive from being a small boutique online marketer into a juggernaut that was eventually acquired in a $6 billion deal. Some may have been hoping for a glitzy programming guru from the ranks of terrestrial or even satellite radio, but Pandora's problem isn't content. It already has the tech in place to serve up custom-tailored tunes and the industry-leading 72 million active listeners to keep improving that data mining.

What Pandora needs is someone who can milk as much ad revenue as it can out of its streams, and it's hard to top McAndrews on that front.

5. Facebook gets moving The top dog in social networking hit new all-time highs this week, putting to bed any jokes and chatter about it being an IPO dud last year. However, the reason it makes the cut this week is that it's starting to lay the groundwork for video ads.

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) is starting to test a feature where it automatically plays user-submitted videos in mobile feeds when they're being scrolled over.

I was a critic when reports began to surface about Facebook getting ready to roll out video advertising. As lucrative as it may be, the possibility of a loud and obtrusive ad blaring in a news feed seemed like certain death for Facebook. However, this test finds me changing my tune. These ads are silent by default. Facebook is also doing a brilliant thing by having friend videos begin scrolling first, so when the video ads do start to roll out, they won't seem as intrusive.

Thinking inside the boxAmericans reportedly spend nearly 34 hours a week watching television! With television viewing taking up almost as much time as the average work week, the potential for profits in the space is enormous. The Motley Fool's top experts have created a new free report titled, "Will Netflix Own the Future of Television?" The report not only outlines where the future of television is heading, but offers top ideas for how to profit. To get your free report, just click here!

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Facebook, Netflix, and Pandora Media. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Facebook, and Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Rick has been writing for Motley Fool since 1995 where he's a Consumer and Tech Stocks Specialist. Yes, that's a long time. He's been an analyst for Motley Fool Rule Breakers and a portfolio lead analyst for Motley Fool Supernova since each newsletter service's inception. He earned his BBA and MBA from the University of Miami, and he now lives a block from his alma mater.
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